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It’s not a great day to be Microsoft. It seems that some of their anti-trust woes have been resurrected from the dead. This time in the form of a failed appeal in a U.K. court.

The Ruling

The court states that Microsoft has unfairly bundled products in a way that produces an anti-competitive landscape. The major point of contention was the Microsoft Media Player, which imposed a forced standard on consumers. An earlier, 2004 ruling stated that Microsoft would be obliged to release a version of Windows that did not contain Media Player.

Microsoft failed to adhere to this decision, and has incurred a $240 Million fine as a result. While, in the scheme of things, this is not a crippling fine for the company it does set a precedent and send a clear sign to anyone else who may wish to bring anti-trust charges against Microsoft in the future.

The total “bill” that Microsoft has run up when you take into account fines and the legal fees that it will be forced to pay amounts to $690 Million. It is unclear whether the company will comply with this latest ruling, but one thing is for certain that and that is that future anti-trust fights will be more difficult for Microsoft to defend again unless it manages to reverse this decision.

Web 2.0 Roundup

Like the TelCos of old, there comes a point where you have to draw a distinction between market success and anti-competitive behavior. Whether that line should be drawn at Media Player or something more “basic” like Internet Explorer is really not important. The best thing that Microsoft could do in this situation is recognize the power of inertia. Offering additional choices to consumers will likely have a negligible affect on market position.

Consumers are “used” to Microsoft products and as long as they keep some position on the desktop, it is likely that most average users will continue to use them. If, however, they allow themselves to be dragged through the courts the likely outcome will be legislation that will do serious damage to their product lines.

I am sure there are plenty of powerful competitors that are just chomping at the bit to weasel their way onto Window’s Desktop. Here is a video of some of the proceedings.

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